


If I Could Take Us Back

by the_space_princess



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Episode: s01e08 Unsaid Emily, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28386501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_space_princess/pseuds/the_space_princess
Summary: Originally posted on Tumblr under lukesorangebeanie! OG Note: Hi. Here’s the Angst I promised. Mostly based on Unsaid Emily, but starting out with the scenes we see of Luke with his parents before that. Be nice please, I’m putting this out there… Hope you like it.
Relationships: Emily Patterson & Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	If I Could Take Us Back

The first time he had gone to his parent’s house, he had been so nervous.

There was no reason to be, of course. He knew they wouldn’t be able to see him, but it wasn’t even that. Seeing his parents again after so long… He didn’t know what to expect. He didn’t know what they would be doing… it had been 25 years. They would be older… He was supposed to be older. Nearing 42, actually, and he couldn’t think about that at all without it weirding him out.

Once he had stepped inside, looking around, he saw… nothing different. He could have been coming back the night after playing The Orpheum, when they were supposed to in 1995. Then his mother walked into the living room. Her hair was gray, her face had more wrinkles, and he felt something break inside of him. He reached for her, but his hand went through her shoulder. The only indication was a small shiver that went through her, but she merely turned around to the thermostat to check it.

It took him a couple of days before he went back again. There was so much happening… His parents were folding clothes, and even though he knew they couldn’t hear him, he started to talk to them. To tell them everything, from dropping into Julie’s garage that first night, up until trying to get her to join the band.

“I don’t know what it is about this girl, Ma. She’s got this… this way of making you look at her when she sings, and I…” he paused, tilting his head. “Anyways. She’s the only one who can make everyone see us when we play, and I wish I could tell you to come see us. I wish… I wish a lot of things, Ma. A lot…” He stared at her as she folded a shirt, and then he sighed.

The day of his birthday, he went because he needed something to do while he sorted out his thoughts on Julie. She had quit the band… they had apologized, and still she said no. She said… quite a few things, and they just made him hate himself more. But even watching his parents didn’t help. They’d made a cake. For his birthday. With a candle and everything… And it just made him cry as he watched them move around the kitchen, setting the table and sitting down to eat the cake.

He blew out the candle, wanting them to know he was there. And he stayed as long as he could, but then he couldn’t be there because it was just too hard. He went to the beach for a while, but eventually he knew he had to go back to Julie’s garage.

What he hadn’t expected was seeing the band practice when he poofed in. “Julie…”

“Grab your guitar, we got work to do!” she told him.

He stared at her, and then stuttered before going to get his guitar. She was there… she was sitting at her piano…

———

A few days after that, he found Julie in front of his parent’s house. And yeah, he felt a bit angry when she explained about watching on his birthday, but then she asked him to trust her. And how could he not? It was Julie.

But then he was inside with her, he was watching his parents read his lyrics, and he blinked, and he was back to the night he left…

——–

It was before Christmas. The presents were still wrapped, sitting there, almost mocking. He stormed into the living room, grabbing his blue hoodie off the chair, his mother following him, yelling.

“Where do you think you’re going?! You can’t go anywhere!” she told him.

“I gotta go rehearse with the guys! We have a gig, Ma-” he replied.

“No, you stay here! This is just some hobby-”

“No it’s not! I’ve told you it’s not! This is my life!” he shouted, angrily zipping up his bag, turning and storming to the garage. She followed him, tried to grab at his sleeve, but he jerked away. He got his bike, and he rode away, hearing her shout behind him, but he didn’t look back.

He stayed in the garage for the next several nights. He had clothes there, and Reggie brought him some more stuff that would fit him, too. And he did what he usually did when he had to work through his thoughts - he wrote. He wrote a song, and he taught it to the band, put his emotion into it. And he knew the guys were worried about him, but he put them off. “After our gig! I’ll go back, after The Orpheum,” he said.

“Alright, man. If that’s what you want,” Reggie replied, shrugging.

Alex gave him a look, but then they were gone, back to their own lives and families, and he sat down on the couch where he’d been sleeping, staring at the bowls of instant noodles he’d been slurping down for days…

He snuck back to his house a couple of times. Watched through the window, saw them moving around. Saw his mom looking at the picture of him from when he was two… He hid, not wanting them to see him. And then he left, because they still wouldn’t get it. That he had to stick with the band, to do this one gig, so that they could go on to bigger things.

It was a few days later that they had the Orpheum gig. And the hot dogs.

And he never got to go home.

He never got to show them that he was doing what he loved, that they could make it. That they could be legends.

——–

“Thank you…”

“You have no idea…”

Luke stared at his parents, only barely listening as Julie spoke to them. Then he couldn’t take it anymore, so he poofed out. He went back to Julie’s house - because it was her house now - and he waited for her, trying to gain his composure as he wiped the tears from his face. He didn’t know exactly what he wanted to say, but he knew that he wanted to thank her. His parents - his mom - finally knew, after all these years, that he had loved them. And it meant so much to have that off his chest.


End file.
